Page:The Painted Veil - Maugham - 1925.djvu/64

 “Oh, no, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Well, come here then.”

“I can’t possibly get away. What about this afternoon? And don’t you think it would be better if I didn’t come to your house?”

“I must see you at once.”

There was a pause and she was afraid that she had been cut off.

“Are you there?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes, I was thinking. Has anything happened?”

“I can’t tell you over the telephone.”

There was another silence before he spoke again.

“Well, look here, I can manage to see you for ten minutes at one if that’ll do. You’d better go to Ku-Chou’s and I’ll come along as soon as I can.”

“The curio shop?” she asked in dismay.

“Well, we can’t meet in the lounge at the Hong-Kong Hotel very well,” he answered.

She noticed a trace of irritation in his voice.

“Very well. I’ll go to Ku-Chou’s.”

HE got out of her rickshaw in the Victoria Road and walked up the steep, narrow lane till she came to the shop. She lingered outside a moment as though her attention were attracted by the bric-a-brac which was displayed. But a boy who was standing there on the watch for customers, recognising her at once, gave her a broad smile of connivance. He said something in Chinese to some